Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Boom! Studios) Issue 18
Issue 18 is the nineteenth actual issue of Boom! Studios ongoing comic book series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers which begins its numbering with Issue 0. It features the Mighty Morphin team. Synopsis As the dust settles from Rita's global takeover, the government begins investigating the Power Rangers in an operation that will strike right to the very core of the team. Plot Grace Sterling lands her helicopter on top of a building to talk with the Power Rangers. She has come to ask for help on something urgent and since she was in Dubai when the Rangers were she figured it would be a great opportunity to ask in person. Two of her men from her company in a Promethea owned plane went missing over the Carpathian Mountains. The Red Ranger says he has heard of the incident, the plane supposedly lost its radio communications and went dead. Grace explains the Romanian government tried to help in the search and rescue, but came up with nothing. The job of the pilots was to do hi-res geological photography of the region for her company for future V.R. projects. Before the plane disappeared, the pilots reported a strange and dense purple fog in the area they were in and Promethea satellites saw something when locking on to their position that didn't make any sense: a village was spotted that was not on any satellite map before or in any historical records. The Red Ranger is curious about Grace's tech and how an invisible town can be seen by her, with Grace explaining the technical details of her scanning equipment. The village is hidden by an illusion and further scans have shown there are people there as well as other things, Grace showing an image of Finster that was taken recently today. Grace thinks that such a situation requires the Power Rangers, which the Red Ranger agrees on. The Power Rangers teleport to the village in Carpathian Mountains, which Kimberly thinks looks straight out of Dracula. Billy and Trini note the architecture is weird as it dates to both Medieval times and the 18th century but looks brand new. Even stranger is that despite there being signs of people, the village looks deserted. Kimberly decides that the best place to look for Finster's base of operation is in the castle on the hill. They are then surprised when a pair of villagers appear behind them and ask if they are looking for "The Master" and offer to take the Power Rangers to him, which the group finds a bit unsettling. Tommy asks the two how long they have been in town, with the villagers saying they were not lucky enough to be the first and they are new here too. They explain the other villagers are preparing for a gathering tonight and the Power Rangers are invited. Zack tries to reason with them that whatever Finster has done to them, they are here to help. Finster appears from the castle tower and tells the Power Rangers the villagers don't need help and are "perfect" just the way they are. While Finster is surprised they found him in his new "home" so soon, it wasn't completely unexpected as he has Ms. Sterling's pilots as his "guests". When questioned about the whereabouts of Rita Repulsa, Finster explains that his empress has given him time off from his services for the time being. He is appreciating this by using this free time refining his "art", asking how they like his latest creations. At first the Rangers are confused, but it is soon revealed the villagers are all human disguised Putties and their forces lunge at them. Outnumbered, Jason suggests they use the Power Blaster to quickly melt down some of the Putties before they are completely overrun. The team assemble their weapons and fire the Power Blaster, destroying a large number of the Putty army. Finster sends the two who escorted the Rangers into the fray, who change into monsters: Karamdillo and Boarlock. Tommy and Jason decide to teleport into the castle to rescue the pilots while the others keep the Putties and monsters busy. They find the pilots in a dungeon and realize they look familiar, they look like the disguised Putty villagers outside. At first Tommy thinks these Pilots are fake, but the two plead that they are real and want to get out of their cell. Outside, Zack, Trini and the others are commenting on the "originality" of the names of the monsters while fighting them. Jason decides to take a chance and frees the pilots from their prison and both he and Tommy carry them. The Pilots explain they were being tortured and experimented on by Finster for his "art" and that Ms. Sterling has been after Finster. This raises s bit of Tommy's curiosity as to why Grace would want Finster, only for the monster maker himself to open fire using an energy gun he built, confirming Ms. Sterling has been pursuing him. Back outside during the battle, Boarlock tries to cast an ice spell with his staff on the other Rangers but Trini dodges it and the spell hits Karmadillo, freezing him instead. Kimberly uses an arrow from her Power Bow to knock away Boarlock's staff to render him powerless and Zack uses his Power Axe to blast the pig wizard, making a bad pun about the monster being "Boaring" that his friends all groan at. In the castle dungeon, the Green and Red Rangers and the pilots are trapped in clay stone as Finster explains his little project: developing a way of turning monsters and Putties into humans for infiltration purposes. He admits the process was difficult, as humans are more complex, especially when it comes to individual personalities. After some time, he thinks he has the process right as he reveals an army of cloned Putties in stasis tanks capable of shapeshifting into humans. Jason whispers to Tommy he can almost reach his Power Blaster as Finster gloats that with the "help" of the pilots, he now can mass produce human impersonators. Jason grabs his blaster and pulls the trigger, blasting him and the others free from the rock. The other Rangers arrive and the team regroups and faces Finster, who oddly raises his hands up and surrenders to them. Hours later, Grace arrives and thanks the Power Rangers on a job well done and says her company will pay for the damages to the town and maybe turn it into a refugee camp as there is no longer anyone living in it. The Red Ranger questions Grace on what the pilots said about her looking for Finster, with her explaining she received intel that one of Rita's lieutenants was on Earth and she wanted to investigate. Grace makes a proposition to the Power Rangers, she could give them her resources to help people around the world if they take her on as a mentor/supporting sponsor. While the Red Ranger is grateful for the helpful info Grace has given leading to capturing Finster, he refuses as the Power Rangers are independent and getting her people involved in their fight could get them killed. Grace says the offer still stands if he changes his mind and they know where to find her. The Red Ranger thanks her and the Power Rangers teleport away back home. Finster is being held in a prison inside the pocket dimension, observing Saba and Alpha working on tech equipment to restore Zordon. Finster is curious as to what they are doing and offers to help if they lower the frosted glass, but the two are not falling for it and tell him to be quiet. Finster takes a particular interest in Saba as he has not seen him before with the Rangers, revealing he may be up to something while in his cell. In the Command Center, Jason is wide awake and monitoring various locations around the globe. Zack teleports in and startles him, who is concerned Jason is once again pushing himself too hard. Jason reassures his friend he has been getting sleep but he spent most of the night here and not all of it. Zack asks why Jason has to do all of this by himself as he could ask Alpha or Saba to help. Jason says that Alpha and Saba are working right now and they need to focus on their task of restoring Zordon. Seeing Jason push himself to his limits, Zack thinks that maybe they should reconsider Grace's offer. He makes a good argument that Grace has a worldwide network at her fingertips and she could coordinate them on what needs attention the most first. But Jason thinks Zordon will be back soon and they don't need Grace. Zack disagrees as Alpha and Saba are theoretically bringing Zordon back, as it has taken them a long time to even get started and there is no telling how long they will be going on without their mentor until they finish or if they even finish at all. As they debate this, an alarm goes off and a news report on the monitors shows that Toronto is under attack by Finster's disguised monsters. The two realize Finster made more of them and there is no telling how many might be out there. As they observe the chaos, Finster is sitting in his cell silently...smiling. To Be Continued... The Ongoing Misadventures of Squatt and Baboo Covers BOOM-MightyMorphinPowerRangers-018-A-Main.jpg|Main cover Jamal Campbell boom-18-versus.jpg|Versus variant Dan Mora boom-actionfigure-zack.jpg|Action figure variant Haskell Mackowski boom-connecting-18.jpg|Connecting cover Steve Morris Errors *''to be added'' Notes to be added